454 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Chap. IV. 



lire or witli a hot iron just before it is applied to the himps of butter. It is 

 chiimcd that butter treated in this M-ay will keep two mouths without salt 

 ill a cool cellar. Any ordinary cheese-press, or the presses accompanying 

 (he portalde cider-mills, now common, will answer the purpose. Pressing 

 removes the M-ater, and the prepared paper excludes tlie air. 



I'^arthen jars, made of the size and shape of a fifty-pounds tub (not a 

 firkin), and put in a wooden tub, made to fit, with a head in each end, are 

 recommended as an improvement for packing butter. If desirable, the 

 wooden tub may be made largo enough to fill with salt between the two, or 

 can be made close. The heads should be made close to the butter-pot in. 

 either case. Butter packed in this way will keep sweet any length of time, 

 if well made, while in the present mode of packing, in nine cases out of 

 tun, it will taste of the tub after being packed two months. The first cost 

 of the two is about one dollar, and after being sent to market, they can be 

 returned a distance of 300 miles at a cost of about thirty cents. We fear the 

 expense of this improvement will prevent its general adoption, though we 

 can perceive no reason to doubt its eflicacy. 



There is no doubt that if butter could be rendered absolutely pure, it 

 would keep, if excluded from the air, as well as sweet-oil. That it is hardly 

 ever pure may be shown by a sample melted, and put in a bottle, to stand a 

 few hours in a M-arm place, when the oily partf-will float uj^ou the top of 

 Avater or other impurities it may contain. 



512. How to Cool Butter without Ice. — The following plan of cooling but- 

 ter is founded upon the scientific principle of cooling a body by evapora- 

 tion. Fill a deep plate or flat dish with water, and in that set a trivet, such 

 as are often used upon the ironing-table, to hold a plate of butter above the 

 water. Cover the butter-plate with a porous, earthen flower-pot that must 

 have its edge immersed in water, and a cork in the hole in the bottom. 

 Now dash M'ater upon the pot, and repeat several times as it evaporates 

 during the day, keeping it in a cool place, and at supper-time you may 

 bring your butter to the table as delightfully firm as you would from an 

 ice-house. 



513. Mjlking by Machiuery. — If anything has been or may be invented to 

 relieve woman from tlie tiresome labor of milking, it will be hailed with in- 

 tense satisfaction. We therefore chronicle the fact of the recent invention 

 of a milking machine. The manner of its construction is simple enough. 

 It consists of two diaphragm pumps made of tin and India rubber, so ar- 

 ranged as to be easily taken apart for washing. The teat-cups are made 

 tapering to fit any size, and attached by flexible joints, so as to be spread 

 apart to suit wide-spreading teats, or those more contracted. It is possible 

 tliat it will prove a very useful invention. If so, we presume that farmers 

 will hear more of it. 



Tlie machine is attached to a pail, and set on a stool under the udder, the 

 four teats inserted in four tubes, and the pump operated, and the milk drawn 

 and conveyed by a conductor into the pail, the inventor says in a marvel- 



